yellow_cobalt

I have seen several posts about this issue. People tend to be confused about it, and go get a new solenoid. Others talk about the connector failing. Unless something horrible went wrong or the vehicle has a LOAD of miles, I am willing to bet the solenoid is not the problem. The problem is the wires but there is little information, how to, or even pictures on this. Here I will show you where it is located, why this fails, and how to fix it. It is quite simple and you can fix it so it won't happen again (or at least shouldn't! )


First things first, you can do this without jacking the car up. Just remove the intake.



Here is the solenoid. Nestled between the wastegate and compressor inlet. I have already removed the connector.




This is the connector. Notice how short the wires are coming out of the thick loom.




This is where the wire breaks. At first, you may not notice this break. I had to untwist the wires and slightly bend it before I found it was broke in half. The pink wire was nearly broken in half too. The insulation kept the wire in place such that it looked fine.




Now the problem is found, where the hell do you buy a new connector?!? Dealer? Probably too expensive if you can even get them to find it. This plug is a Bosch EV1 style connector. The same connector used for injectors. Very easy item to find. I personally have brand new ones laying around from DIYAutoTune. Love that website. But yes all you need is a EV1 style injector connector.




Soldered and heat shrinked in place. Notice the length added compared to what I cut off.




Here it is completed. Again, the length is much more than stock.


Now why did I extend the wires? Well if I could get a picture it would help, but the reason is the fact the wires were bent in a horrible way stock. Sharp bend right out of the wire loom. This is the biggest factor to why the wire breaks. With the extension I have now, the loom sits close to block, while the extension I have creates a very gradual bend with no bend at the connector.




Now for some extra info. The solenoid for the wastegate is the same one as the solenoid for the recirculate valve (the one on the manifold that also runs to the vacuum tank). If you think the solenoid is bad causing your P0243, then swap the two solenoids, clear DTCs, and go through two cycles (cycle ignition two times starting vehicle). If the DTC shows the bypass valve solenoid is now bad, then the solenoid is bad. If it shows the wastegate is still bad, it is more than likely the wires.

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

Very good post, this type of thing gets overlooked far too often. Thanks for taking the time to inform the community. It's always very satisfying to actually find and correct a design flaw rather than just throw parts at it.

FYI, I grabbed an handful of those connectors at the local junkyard one day, as you said they are injector connectors on almost everything, so you can find them in sets of at least 4 and most u-pull-it yards won't even charge you for just little pigtails like that if you're buying other parts. Used one to re-wire an I/C pump on an LSJ that had been cut off, used another to add a reverse light switch on a BMW during an auto to manual trans swap.

yellow_cobalt

Thanks. Any time I come across a common, or fairly normal, issue but there isn't much detail on it, then I plan to document it. I would really like to do a write up on the steering column rattle, not the universal joint rattle, but I have an extended vehicle warranty I will use to replace it. If the dealer allows me to keep the old one, I may look into a true fix, but as far as I have seen it can't be fixed without a lot of investment.

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

The GM steering rattle is usually slack inside the power assist unit from wear on the gears. It happens on malibus all the time as well. If it's not the steering shaft u-joints.